Tuesday, October 30, 2007

You pick your apples, sweet ones please, Golden Delicious and Gala are what grow in our garden, wash them, cut them into quarters, put them into a pot with a bit of water, add sugar, a cinnamon stick, bring to a boil, simmer until fall-apart tender, drain, put through a chinois and voilà! - applesauce.

This is for Paz, who really liked the photo of the applesauce I posted here.

Christine's Homemade ApplesauceIngredients:Apples, as many or as few as you wish, I had about 5 pounds (see Cook's Notes)sugar (I used Splenda Sugar Blend), about 1/4 cup (or less to none) per pound of apples (ditto)1 cinnamon stickjuice of 1 lemonwater to just cover the apples

Preparation:

Wash, cut up the apples and place them in a large pot. No need to peel or core them, the chinois does that for you.

Sprinkle the lemon juice and sugar over the apples and toss to coat.

Pour in just enough water to cover the apples, toss in the cinnamon stick and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring awhile to dissolve the sugar.

Adjust the flame so the apples just simmer and leave until they become very soft and tender and that wonderful apple-cinnamony perfume permeates the kitchen. Add more water if needed to keep the apples from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Remove the pot from the heat and allow the apples to cool just a bit.

Using a slotted spoon, first fish out the cinnamon stick and discard, then scoop the apples into the chinois, which has been placed over a large bowl, and stir with the pestle until the applesauce is in the bowl and nothing is left in the chinois except the seeds and peels. You may have to do this in several batches.

And what have you got? Applesauce. Magic.

Cook's Notes:

Please use sweet apples for this, not Granny Smith.

The sweeter the apples the less sugar is needed, possibly no sugar. It all depends on your tastebuds.

Want it chunky? Then you have to peel, core and dice the apples before cooking them. Omit the chinois step. When the apples are tender and saucy to your liking, they're applesauce.

I want a chinois...and your applesauce!How do you keep it so white? Mine is always brown...would have nothing to do with the powdered cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves...and brown sugar..Next year I'm trying it your way!